Barack Obama to become first US leader to visit Burma

President Barack Obama will visit Burma to meet its president and its iconic
opposition leader, marking a new milestone in US efforts to promote
democratic reforms in the once-isolated Southeast Asian country.

Barack Obama celebrated his re-election as US president with a promise to reach across America’s bitter political divide (AP)

10:01PM GMT 08 Nov 2012

Mr Obama will travel to the former pariah state as part of a tour of Southeast Asia that will include stops in Thailand and Cambodia, the White House said as it announced the President's first international trip since his re-election.

The visit to Burma, the first by a sitting US president, will give Mr Obama a chance to hold talks with President Thein Sein and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to encourage the country's fledgling transition towards democracy.

Mr Obama's visit will be the strongest endorsement so far from the international community of the country's transformation under the quasi-civilian government which took office in March 2011 after decades of military rule.

The visit will allow Mr Obama to highlight what many see as a first-term foreign policy accomplishment in helping to push Burma's generals onto the path of democratic change.

He is going ahead with the trip despite recent sectarian violence in western Burma, which has drawn protests from the US, the European Union and UN human rights investigators.

Some 89 people were killed in clashes between Buddhist Rakhines and minority Muslim Rohingyas, according to the latest official toll covering the last 10 days of October. Many thousands more have been displaced by the violence.

The United States eased sanctions on Burma this year in recognition of the political and economic changes under way, and many US companies are looking at starting operations in the country to take advantage of its abundant resources and low-cost labour.

In November 2011, Hillary Clinton became the first US Secretary of State to visit the country in more than 50 years.

Mr Obama has sought to consolidate ties and reinforce US influence across Asia in what officials have described as a policy "pivot" toward the region as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down.

Burma grew close to China during decades of isolation, reinforced by Western sanctions over its poor human rights record, but it is now seeking to expand relations with the West.

Mr Obama met Ms Suu Kyi during her visit to the United States in September. Mr Thein Sein was also in the United States around the same time to attend the opening of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, but the two leaders did not meet.